Niall Ferguson

Poor chap.Wants to be a historian but failed history 101. To be a historian you have to start with an open mind and without fixed views or prejudices. He didn't. He is some sort of right wing ideologue and all his work is an attempt to show that the right's predecessors did no wrong and that their legacy is pure and simple. It isn't. And so he fails from the outset. He has of course done well without doing any good. He has written books and made TV shows and loads of money. But he is at heart a failure. His version of history is pathetic and will not be a source of inspiration for anyone. He is still young however and who knows what the future holds.

Ashes

Scotland is in the grip of frenzied nonsense about what happend to the ashes of babies who were cremated. Crematoria are being condemned for not having returned ashes to the parents. Eh?  When a person, baby, child or adult, is cremated it is usually within a coffin made of some substantial material. Both are we suppose burnt together. Possibly in multiple cremations? In any event who can imagine which ashes were of the deceased and which were from the coffin? Did anyone ever believe that the ashes which were returned to families were solely and exclusively those of the deceased? Surely not. Let us get a grip grow up and get over this tedious nonsense. If we want to keep close to a deceased relative's remains let us bury them in the ground and let others be cremated.

Elected Representatives

We need to do something. Our elected representatives are a motley crew, increasingly ignorant and stupid. Listen to them. Watch them. The bulk of them are no-nothing party hacks. The crisis in US politics is more public and better documented. There politicians seem to lack shame and willingly parade their  ignorance and stupidity in public. Other countries need take no smug comfort from this debacle. We are also affected. In a quieter more subtle way our politicians reveal similar traits. We need to act. We need to stop electing such people. This is not a party issue. All parties are affected and indeed all parties encourage such people. Ordinary mortals like us need to get our act together and choose and elect a radically different breed to our governments.

TV Presenters.

IT is getting ridiculous. We used to have real people on TV presenting the news and suchlike. No more. It has become a freakshow. They are all constrained to look "well". Botox, plastic surgery and hairpieces are now obligatory. They all talk alike and none of them seems at all like the average person you might meet in the street. TV is a poorer and poorer reflection of life and is becoming like Hollywood - a fantasy dream world of relevance only to a small minority of the population.

Political Readymeals

Do you like cooking?  TV is awash with cookery programmes encouraging us into the kitchen. Kitchen manufacturers spend endlessly to persuade us to install new kitchens. And some of us do both. But! Sales of readymeals grow and grow.We all like the convenience of fast food . We don't want to be endlessly in the kitchen struggling with ingredients and processes.
And so with politicians. They can't for the most part grapple with the complexities of life. Things are complicated and getting harder. Politicians are not the most able people to start with and work is not their favourite pastime. Politically - they can't cook. So what? So they buy a political readymeal- an -ism,  an ideology. Signup to be a something and the pain of thinking goes away. Life is easy, the party tells them what to think and do. Time to relax and reap the rewards.
And these are the people who are governing us. You can't get into government except through a political party. You and I mostly lead our lives well away from political parties, very few of us are members and we would seldom seek their advice or assistance. But they govern us. And they are fed on political readymeals. They have not the slightest idea of how we live, of what we seek or of how to help. Politics is debased to party politics and it needs to change.

For "Justice" read "Financial Compensation"

Every day it seems there are folks being interviewed on the news over some issue announcing in sombre terms that they are only doing whatever in pursuit of justice. Supine journalists nod wisely and move on. Not a one seems ever moved to ask the proper question. "How much are you looking for in compensation?" That is the normal response from you or me but journalists it seems have not thought of that. (They could at a stretch say that they got the interview on condition that they did not ask that question). Think about it.

Historians not Idealogues

Today Eric Hobsbawm died at the age of 95. Good Innings. However - while practicing as a historian and writing many history books he was first and last a Marxist. This undermines and nullifies the content of his writing. We can not be expected to take seriously history writing from persons who start out with an ideology which distorts everything they write or say. The problem is widespread and there are all sorts of historians at work whom we should ignore. On the right we have the likes of Niall Ferguson and Michael Burleigh. Do not read work by any historian who is noticeably attached to an -ism. Historians should end by making some useful suggestions, they should not begin by having a fixed view of what they are about to explore.